Wicked delayed Wednesday

It’s simply harrowing to see how much time has lapsed since my last post. The work piles up, the seasons change, and a thousand other lame excuses can be made to rationalize my inactivity. I had thought of posting several times, yet those thoughts were usually surpassed and squelched by other more pressing, inharmonious, and imperfect concepts: of paying my bills on time, polishing final papers, cramming for credit testing, and the weekly struggles to study and eat.

Thus my digital writing voice was strangled by reality, and silenced by time. Like anything, getting off track is simple, returning is daunting. After hours of recuperation from the madness of school, I’m back to the grindstone. The first (sort of) snow has finally fallen and stuck here in New England, and its beginning to feel more like winter already. The new year has brought with a pretty terrible flu, which has not affected me yet, knock on wood. There is also the prospect of getting a more proper living situation come fall, which is both exciting, and costly.

From previously positive posts on prospective pants and other garments—there has been no headway, and with good reason. Thankfully, the thoughtfully tilled time to tailor twill trousers will come. To take place of my trouser photos, of which are a long time coming I assure you, I leave you with a long string of semi-coherent nonsense. 

Allied alliterations announce aid along an awfully addling antiquated and allegorical alleys as agonizingly affluent ambassadors appropriate arms against any abodes alleviating aggressive anti-adversity allegiances angled against ailing agrarian attitudes allegedly afflicting agonized adults. All accounted, asymmetrically attuned arsonists act angrily, abandoned archaic avengers assailing apathetic associations, alighting alternative apologies and appeals ablaze. 

Have a good night, folks.

~Andrew

Spring is coming!

Remember this picture?

My window a month ago. ugh.

 Well, as it happens, spring is on it's way. Those dark and dismal days of continual snowfall are over (maybe).  I'm glad to say that spring is coming, but there is a catch with that. As spring rolls in, so do the endless projects and baffling tests. Oh the tests!

For now, though, I'll be celebrating in my giddy homemade clothes projects, just as the college lets out for an all too brief break. Needless to say, it's very welcome this time of year; having a couple days reprieve to the maddening projects that seem to stack up from out of nowhere. These things happen, I suppose.

At least these things happen while the weather gets warmer and the daylight hours grow longer. soon enough, this snow will be gone, and free running in the woods will be again in season (I can hardly wait for that). For the past few days we've been well above freezing up here--it's been so nice, I've seen people walking in tee-shirts and shorts! Though in truth, these may be the people who were wearing tee-shirts and shorts all winter long anyways. Hmm. Either way, it's a hopeful time up here.

My window now

And with that hope, comes renewed efforts to accomplish those long standing projects. As I had said above, my giddy projects are at hand! First up, a simple pair of pants. After that, shoes, and then rest of the wardrobe. It's been a goal of mine to wear or use what I make, and so I will do my best to make that a reality. With nine yards of good linen, a good roll of leather, all the tools necessary, and (finally) some time to work with, the pants and shoes may yet get done. Huzzah!

With that, my update from college is about finished. Nothing extraordinary going on up here, no parties, no lewd comments to throw at anyone--Just a sunny morning, a warm cup of tea, and a good Wednesday.

How is your day going, out there?

~Andrew

Ah, the college life

Ah yes, the college life. I thought I'd share a piece of my learnings of the life at college. I introduce to you--my lesson in cunning and creative college culinary crafting!

Behold the wonder (wonder that I even consider this food)--I call it a jam-wich! Simply explained, I have no peanut butter, nor spread of that fashion, an excess of wheat tortillas, and a couple of jars of jam. The result is a copious amount of jam spread onto a tortilla, rolled up, and then eaten, much like some uncouth, unknown cousin of the cannoli. Though bearing a nutritional value of nothing, and the probable side effects of a much higher risk of diabetes later down the road, these seem to be an interesting solution to the slightly sticky situation--creative boredom.

On the sweet note of creativity (a note more worthy of mention), there is plenty of time to sit back a sketch a little while here at college. It's fun to get back in the swing of the sketch--now if only I could get back to that sweet spot I had reached with shading a while back. It'll come with time. In the meantime, here's what I bring to enjoy with you.

The two figures here (left and bottom center) are two characters eventually in a short story of brotherhood in a land and time that never existed--but would be interesting, should it have. Their names are fun (for me) because of their translations. Punch them into a translator, and see what you get (I'm hoping you get "big" and "small", but "Big" and "kind" work too. If you don't get that, please let me know. Thank you!).

Long(er) time, no posts!

Man, college leeches all of the time out of your life. Good think to know, though--all the same, apologies for my inactivity. As you may (or may not) have seen, the winter snows have come to New England, and they've come in force. This is an image of how winter decided to deviously destroy my sight out of my dorm room window. Dastardly! Heaven only knows what this harsh winter means--or rather, why it has taken hold in the way that it has.
My time at college has allowed me some sitting and thinking time (though truly, more thinking than sitting), and those thoughts have manifested into a sort of ideology which is this: nature provides for that which is needed. This doesn't mean that nature will blow money from a bank to the poor of the world (I'm sure some big business or bureaucratic batch of bourgeois bankers has some kind of defense against such things anyways), but rather, it means that nature gives out the cure to many ailments we have. Take for example cold season. I don't know how cold season has been in the rest of the world (and that could be the undoing of my idea), but here in New England, it's been a bad year for a cold/flu that wipes out the voice, comes on with a migraine, and hangs on for a couple of weeks--this sickness among others. Oddly enough, last year was an amazing year for elderberries, which actually grew in places they never had before. Elderberries are good for immune system boosts, so I wonder, is this one of those coincidences? Food for thought, that is.

Apart from the time to sit and think, it has been the time to sit and carve. I made about four or five little wooden priests over the course of this year, among other small project things--Just something to keep the hands busy while reading, and something that's easier to work with than making riveted chainmail (that was an adventurous mistake). A pine block, and about an hour of leisure work with the knife, and out pops a new friar, ready to stoop over my desk and frown at my penmanship in a most discerning manner. In truth, they don't do that, but I'd like to think that they disapprove of my handwriting in a clerical manner.

This little hobby carving is fun, but it's much like having a piece of chocolate--you only crave more after the first bite. For me, it's so tempting to spend my entire summer carving, jointing, and making little bits of everything that I can--tables, chairs, trunks, clothes--everything. I suppose this little taste of creative work has been a little bit venomous, but only in the best of ways. I crave more creative work with my hands, and the freedom to go up and down mountains in the fall, snowshoeing in the winter, frolicking in the spring, traveling in the summer, and all the while making new discoveries and crafts. Alas! Those times are past for now. In their place have come the times of tedious teacher's trials and tests, of witty and wild writing, and more importantly, stupendous slipping of seconds in the semester. We're halfway through the second month of the year, friends! My how time files, when you're up to your neck in your work.

And oh how we should cherish it.

Goodnight, People. Enjoy the final acts of winter!
~Andrew

Sickness and Halloween

Hello friends!

So these past few weeks have been eventful in two different ways.

Halloween and sickness.

Recently the two of us and my entire family have come down with the plague: a flu that knocks you out for several days then takes a few weeks to recover and right when you think you're healthy, it throws a bout of conjunctivitis and/or an ear infection to anyone it touches. It's awful.

I was the first one to come down with this sickness and it involved me laying on the couch and sleeping for 18 hours in hour to hour and a half bouts through out the day. Then took about 2 weeks to get back to about 95% normal. Andrew was the next, followed by the rest of my family. It is tough.

On the good side though! Halloween happened. I live in a circular suburb and a lot of kids come to go trick or treating at my house. We dressed as pirates and gave out candy to all the kids. It was my first time actually handing out the candy instead of either trick-or-treating or not doing anything at all. Plus I was able to be back from college that week so it made it even better!

Working and Weaponry Wednesday

Looks like I'm back!

Well, after a short while of getting my feet under me at college (by short, I mean a couple of months), I have returned to continue talking my glorious rot! Tonight I think I'll talk about my midterm week madness--and a purchase that I made during such times. Normally, I may have been hesitant to buy this, but since it was midterms week, and I was very well craving the liberties of the outside world, I bought this.

 Fancy, isn't it? Come to think of it, I might have bought this to blow some midterm steam off on the weekends....hmm. It'll need a proper sheath sooner than later, but it is a nice blade, through and through. I had made my purchase online (for shame of me) through a fairly reputable dealer (just check reviews on what you buy), after watching the price on the blade drop like a stone due to it being an outdated model, and there being a slight offset between the hilt and the blade itself (though nothing that inhibits it's performance).

As wonderfully displayed by my father here (a hearty shout out to him), this is a pretty simple image that displays the length and general look of the blade. It's named as a norman riding sword, which I am inclined to believe the title due to the blade shape and the intense guard (which is broad and straight). The only part of the blade that is different or strange would have to be the pommel (the rounded metal bit at the end of the handle), which is an octagon, rather than the typical pointed end oval seen on norman blades. Either way, the octagonal pommel is appreciated, as it gives a look of the higher middle ages, rather than the early days, and also is much easier on the hand/wrist.
Because of the blade's weighting, it's a sluggish things, of which only the gifted in sword combat may swing with ease. I am not that gifted. Instead, I stand about and chop down the cornstalks in the field with the sword, or slice old plastic bottles up with it. It has minimal resistance to whatever it hits, and moreover, after dinging up a dead tree, the blade bears no nicks, dings, bends, or warps. There is almost no hand shock from a hit. In short, I am thoroughly impressed with the blade, and all for under $100! (barely)
So if you think you need to do something physical after some hairy papers and projects, I have a suggestion for you; get a sword, any sword you feel comfortable with the strength of, and start swinging it at empty plastic bottles or such. It's very relaxing, and satisfying, and much cheaper than therapy.

And with that, have a good night, everyone!
~Andrew

Long wait for....

....This post! Hey guys! I'm losing track of the weeks here, and missed Three Word Wednesday for the last month or so; I'll be back to that soon. Let me tell you what's happened recently.

I'm at college right now. I moved in Monday, which means that classes started on Tuesday, and between living with my roommates, school work, and class/schedule changes, my life has been a little up in the air, to say the least. I will say that the teachers I have are all fairly nice, my class loads are going to take a bit to get used to (but nothing severe), and the campus is a nice place.

In this learning experience, I've learned more than I thought I would in week one alone--for starters, I don't like electric stoves. More seriously though, I've learned about what you need in an apartment (to even function), how much you need to communicate with your roommates and friends who has what classes and when, and how to manage time when the papers pile up. So far, this week has been a lesson in how to interact with people, rather than lessons in grammar, history, math, music, or science--that will come later, and I'm thankful that it will, because the social lessons are easier, I'm sure, when there is little going on.

I have three roommates here in the school apartments, and although it's nice to have someone to split rent with, and have people to talk with, I'm not sure I like it. I enjoyed my quiet and early to bed, early to rise life back at home; here, there is no such thing as a stable sleep schedule, little is quiet, and none of my roommates are morning people. The guys are good about giving me my space, though, so there is that. As to the other nuances of life here, I'm sure they'll straighten themselves out soon.

So this is what my life has been right now; a little hectic right now, but it should level off enough for a more steady and pleasant lifestyle coming ahead. Thanks for tuning in, and see you (with any luck) next week.